I’d have more sympathy, but British people do it all the freaking time. Y’all seem to be incapable of respecting regional variance, ie the way language works.

With extra acoustic fun if your whole house has hardwood floors.

And there we have it.

Also: cries in Bristolian

Is it just me, or is it even harder than usual to avoid this year?

Yeah, donuts have that effect.

A.I. and the Fetishization Of Ideas In writing and in dispensing my (very dubious, probably shady) writing advice, I am often keen to note that ideas are bullshit. Most writers treat them like precious gems when really, ideas are lik…

I said it before, will say it again -- generative AI fetishizes "ideas" while sneering at effort, execution, and education. That, despite Gen-AI being built on and out of other people's effort, execution and education.

I keep thinking about all of the people who were NOT hired as part of this exercise. All the real world production crew. The actors. The caterers supporting real world shoots. So many people with real skills not being paid. So. Many. Creative. People. Not. Being. Paid.

“Need”. This word doesn’t mean what the techbros think it does.

All other reasons this is icky aside, I’m so tired of privileged people saying Thing is necessary rather than “I’m lucky enough to have it”, negating the lived experience of everyone less well off.

Grr. That’s what I use to convert my library e-books so I can put them on my Kindle.

Yeah. This.

The Statues That Walked is one of my top 20 non fiction books.

there are two tragedies of the commons

the enclosure acts the upper classes imposed to steal them from us

and the victim blaming narrative that insists that that was actually the lesser evil because the masses were so incompetent and terrible

Please don't let the fear of not doing something well stop you from trying it for the first time. Write a messy story. Paint a crappy flower. Whittle the worst wooden bear of all time.

The best gift you can give yourself is to have fun and grow.

I was blissfully unaware that edition exists, having read it for my Russian history undergrad course in the 80s.

I hear that.

Always worth taking a moment to remind you if you’re pirating authors’ book you’re a shitty person. You can rail that our profession isn’t a profession all you want. You can paint yourself as an online revolutionary liberating ideas. It’s all bullshit.

You’re just a shitty person who hates writers.

There is a post circulating on Bluesky encouraging the moving of a frozen turkey straight into a pot of hot oil. We are combating this misinformation the best way we know how - through the power of dance music.

We are indeed living in the worst timeline.

I keep trying to tell everyone they don’t think we’re human. Maybe someone will finally listen.

Yeah. Exactly this, and nobody listens.

Doesn’t matter as long as all the media only pays attention to Reform.

Everyone needs to invoice them for their time. (Perhaps I have been working with lawyers for too long).

I left the NHS in 2011, not least because the NHS already regarded support staff with contempt, and both numbers and skills have only been decimated since. So now it need to function with less? Hint: this will not free up clinician time.

It’s just about the only reason I’m glad I got priced out of the city.

In east Bristol there’s not much let up between now and New Year’s Eve.

I would assume so but my experience says no - I used to live in Fishponds- very few flags, but like living in a war zone this time of year. I’m now in Bridgwater and it’s the other way round.

That it is!

Cheese shop, you say?